This paper evaluates the German health care reform of 1997, using the individual number of doctor visits as outcome measure and data from the German Socio-Economic Panel for the years 1995-1999. A number of modified count data models allow us to estimate the effect of the reform in different...

This paper analyses the effects of distance as a common determinant of exports and FDI in a three-factor New Trade Theory model, assuming that distance affects both pure trade costs and plant set-up costs. Exports and FDI are not necessarily substitutes with respect to distance, since the...

This paper develops a dynamic programming model of the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) application timing decision. We estimate the time to application from the point at which a health condition first begins to affect the kind or amount of work that a currently employed person can...

We analyse the joint distribution of the durations until retirement of Danish husbands and wives. We estimate a multivariate mixed proportional hazards model that allows for interdependence in the times to retirement of spouses. We find evidence of strong complementarities in leisure times....

Convergence in the gross domestic product series of five European countries is empirically identified using multivariate time series models that are based on unobserved components with dynamic converging properties. We define convergence in terms of a decrease in dispersion over time and model...

This paper considers Markov error-correction (MEC) models in which deviations from the long-run equilibrium are characterized by different rates of adjustment. To motivate our analysis and illustrate the various issues involved, our discussion is structured around the analysis of the long-run...

In estimating the effect of an ordered treatment τ on a count response y with an observational data where τ is self-selected (not randomized), observed variables x and unobserved variables ϵ can be unbalanced across the control group (τ = 0) and the treatment groups (τ = 1, …, J). While...

Moral hazard is easy to justify theoretically but difficult to detect empirically. Individuals may report sick due to illness as well as for moral hazard reasons. Potential abuse of the sickness insurance system in Sweden is estimated by comparing the change between the number of men and women...

Unit root tests, seeking mean or trend reversion, are frequently applied to panel data. We show that more powerful variants of commonly applied tests are readily available. Moreover, power gains persist when the modifications are applied to bootstrap procedures that may be employed when...